Here are some excerpts from some inspection tours I looked at today.
Here's an excerpt from an earlier inspection the in 1960s where we see "Group A" and "Group B". Why did they have to break up into 2 groups? Why not conduct one tour? It might be because the job involves too much travel and might not be possible with just one team.
Here's an inspection map with no route-- only the stations inspected. Why not post the route?
Here's a partial circumnavigation which is more along the lines of what I'm interested in. I haven't seen anything that describes what the method of selection is or how they decide on their route. If they're going almost all the way around, why not complete the trip? Because it's too far? Like 60,000 miles?
Here is how many of the reports list dates of the various station stops. There is comprehensive LIST, just a description in a paragraph. No mileages are stated. Why not? Would that give away the situation? Are the dates correct? Who knows?
This is one of the better maps. I had to cut it in two to make it fit my file. Note that it's almost a complete circumnavigation. I clearly shows the stops made. They travelled by ship. Why not conduct inspections via air? They never say. Too much refueling for the flat earth rim of 60,000 miles? Just guessing.
Earlier reports are quite direct about disarming Antarctica... the first disarmament being perhaps the destruction of the German base New Shwabenland. I haven't seen any reports of flying saucers in the Antarctic Treaty reports however.
Here's one of the only nice organized time tables I've seen. Whether the dates are correct or not is impossible to say but at least they listed them. Time and mileage are the way we'll prove earth is flat or a globe so I'm always looking for time and date and mileage stamps on reports.
Here's another example of stations with dates visited. No mileages though. Not sure how they travelled.
Here's another early 1970's version of list of stations and dates. There was no map with this but there should be maps with all these routes. Of course, they weren't thinking about proving the world is round when they made the report so I suppose it's forgivable. Still-- I would have expected more maps with miles and dates than I've seen.
source
http://www.ats.aq/DevAS/ats_governance_listinspections.aspx?lang=e
The dates are interesting.
ReplyDeleteDumont D'urville - overflight only....what on earth do they gain by this? To see it's there? What are they inspecting? Perhaps they never went there, just box ticking. They're at Scott [NZ] the previous day, and two days later they're inspecting Vostok. They, another three days later they're at Mirnyy. I guess they've always got the cover story that bad weather held up the flights.
If they overflew D'urville, where did they stay/refuel?
Vostok - Mirnyy is 1400km, allegedly.
Faraday Base [F] inspected the day after Mirnyy must have been done by another crew [it's now a Ukrainian base] or the date is wrong. It makes no sense because all the other bases on the peninsula are inspected 5 days or more after Base F.
Similarly, the "inspections" around Siowa have unusual timings - eg Halley is done in a day, beause Belgrano is close by.[only 326km]
But anyway, how would the "inspectors" know what the scientists really were doing in such flying visits - even overflying - or whether the station personnel had resorted to killing and eating penguins or were taking all their waste home with them?
It's too early to inspect the short lived Russkiya station in Marie Byrd [unclaimed] Land but I did find a Russian article [in Russian] which is the best description so far of its history.
Deletehttp://www.polarpost.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1971
and which mentions the scarcity of flora and fauna
The least studied area [notable for polynyas, open sea water surrounded by ice] and there's no station there now.
Google translate:
Soviet polar explorers first arrived in the area in 1972, when members of SAE 17 under the direction of E.S.Korotkevicha surveyed the coast of Marie Byrd Land by o.Kruzen to Cape Dart in order to choose a place to build a new research station.
In 1973, at Cape Burks SAE 18 participants led P.K.Senko work began on the creation of Russian stations. However, due to severe ice and weather conditions provide it with all the necessary failed and canned station. As a result of severe storms station facilities were almost completely destroyed.
In July 1978 the College GUGMS decided to open Russian plant. Work on it began in the opening of the summer season 1979 (SAE 24). To perform the research program was to determine the composition station of 9 members, led by V.M.Stepanovym. However, due to heavy ice conditions and failure RV "Mikhail Somov" schedule in Antarctica even while the ship is in the region of Leningrad station it was decided to cease work on the creation of the new station.
February 26, 1980 (25 EPS) d / e "Gizhiga" came to the edge of the one-year fast ice near Cape Burks. February 27 was made a reconnaissance flight, during which the defined and marked area for the construction of the station, taken ashore emergency house PACE. On the same day by helicopters launched an operation to unload the ship and deliver goods to the place of construction of the station. In total for this period, the station was imported 132 tons of general cargo, 87 tons of fuel and 13 tons of food.
At the same time discharge was under construction, it is temporarily interrupted due to the hurricane winds. Buildings were constructed DES, service and residential building, warehouses, radio towers are installed.
March 9, 1980 at 18h.10 min. above the station raised the state flag of the USSR.
/////
The station is characterized by extremely harsh weather conditions, formed under the influence of intense cyclonic activity. The main factor determining the severity of the climate are strong winds.
////
During the work of SAE 31, it was clarified the position of the coastline near the station. [1986]
It is not stated why the 35th Soviet Antarctic Expedition shut down Russkiya - it was closed during March 1990 after loss of a supply helicopter and the remaining staff airlifted out
March 16, 1990 preservation station has been completed and the staff (12 people headed by N.P.Dvorakom Н.П.Двораком) were taken two flights of helicopters on board the RV "Mikhail Somov".
February 1, 1993 was made one flight for inspection stations with very brief stay on it because of the adverse weather conditions.
In the thirty-eighth SAE [1993]scheduled traffic "Akademik Fedorov" assumed its passage past the canned station, in connection with which there was the possibility of its examination. February 1, 1993 was made one flight for inspection stations with very brief stay on it because of the adverse weather conditions.
Good questions-- I'll have to generate some user maps we can all use to start mapping these out with a pencil. In the meantime, you've just made me hungry-- wondering what penguin burger tastes like. I wonder if it's more like beef, chicken or fish?
DeleteThe above comment was meant for your first comment-- about the mileages.
DeleteAs to the Russian station Russkiya-- it seems silly to me to shut down just because of a little bit of wind. After all, aren't we supposed to be able to transit space between here and the moon and drive lunar rovers? Don't we have underground military installations in Colorado where govn't can survive nuclear war while the rest of us are cooked? And they're telling me Russkiya was basically too windy so they "gave up"?
Naah. Something else is up with that location. Your report points to cyclones. That's interesting. That's all the MORE reason to set up shop there to study THOSE.
Besides, we NOW know that Marie Byrdland is in the the RED ZONE of lat and long lines. Previous inspection tours that ALMOST circumnavigated the island continent would be charted around the REST of the island but NOT THIS PART.
Also, didn't MH17 from Malaysia fly into the South Pacific aiming toward this area? if I'm not mistaken. I'll check into that. There could be a type of multi dimensional vortex there due to lay lines and all of that. Or maybe it's an EXTENDED REGION that makes up for the otherwise normal distances around the rest of the perimeter somehow due to the mathematics of DIVERGING LONGITUDE LINES on a flat earth. Extra land has to be installed SOMEWHERE along the way-- maybe it's ALL in this zone.
I never made the grade with LINEAR ALGEBRA and STATS but someone with some math ability will have to take a look at the CONVERSION of the coordinates of a sphere to a plane to make this work and to further explain the situation. I'm considering the writer of FLAT WORLD .... A.K. Dewdney at UWO. He's busy doing other things but at least I can write to him via email. His Flat World proposed a 2D world for AI units in story form. He just MIGHT have the mindset to tackel the math of a flat world conversion from a spherical one. I can only try. If he says no or doesn't respond, I'm no further behind.
Project GIMBLE - : Geophysical Investigations of
ReplyDeleteMarie Byrd Land Evolution
https://www.waisworkshop.org/sites/waisworkshop.org/files/files/agendas/2012/abstracts/young.pdf
We have proposed to perform a 16 flight, two year aerogeophysical survey of Marie Byrd Land
https://www.facebook.com/TheGimbleProject/videos/vb.115120865326722/10151385607574787/?type=2&theater
[video]
The Gimble Project
30 January 2013 · ·
JKB landing
Coming back to Byrd camp after a successful flight. — at Byrd Surface Camp, West Antarctica.
er, not exactly convincing.[it's a Ken Borek Basler]
https://twitter.com/GIMBLEProject
last check in:
The Gimble Project
7 December 2014 ·
After a week delay in McMurdo, Basler MKB is going to try to make WAIS divide to begin surveying the enigmatic Marie Byrd Land dome over the next 2 weeks. A complete aerogeophysical survey of the region will be a great Christmas gift!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGimbleProject/posts/368804339958372
Byrd Camp: located about 1,400 kilometers from the USAP's main facility, McMurdo..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byrd_Station
..a completely new camp capable of supporting upwards of 50 people will be constructed this coming field season, as scientists fan out across West Antarctica to install a GPS and seismic network, to fly radar-equipped airplanes over the ice sheet and to peer underneath the continent’s fastest-moving glacier at Pine Island.
“We’re starting new. A new skiway. Everything,” said Chad Naughton, a Science Planning manager for Raytheon Polar Services Co. (RPSC) External Non-U.S. government site, the prime logistics contractor to the NSF. “It’s basically a gas station for [air operations].”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the Pine Island Glacier camp — once we get everything out there — if it stays out there for more than two years,” he added. “The helos are currently planned for just two field seasons. … Woody [Haywood] and I are firm believers that if you build it they will come. It’s unexplored out there, and it’s pushing the logistics chain out of McMurdo.”
June 12, 2009
http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contentHandler.cfm?id=1792
There's an interesting map of the supply chain to PIG, Pine Island Glacier
http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/images/byrd_map.jpg
Robert Bindschadler, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center External U.S. government site, will eventually lead a two-year project to bore holes through the ice with a hotwater drill, and then lower instruments into the ocean cavity below the glacier and ice shelf to learn more about ocean-ice interaction.
This gets mysteriouser and mysteriouser.
ReplyDeleteIndeed - a survey of the most unexplored place on the planet and we get a weird Facebook page and a few tweets....
DeleteFrom the Antarctic Sun article....
"The logistics chain of McMurdo" - That's a strange chain. Pine Ice Glacier is on the coast, yet they have to service it overland from Byrd, itself serviced fro McMurdo.. Why not build a base on the coast?
“Byrd is actually the beachhead to Pine Island. Byrd will become the staging point for the Pine Island traverse,” said [Chad] Naughton, [of Raytheon] referring to an operation planned for 2010-11 to shuttle equipment to Pine Island Glacier using tractors and sleds across 700 kilometers of ice and snow for a helicopter field camp.
Didn't the Soviets allegedly service Russkiya by ship/helicopter in the 80s? Surely the US could do that today?? Or service PIG from the Peninsula? Or Sky Blu within the orbit of the "Antarctic Community"?
http://antarctica.ac.uk/living_and_working/research_stations/skyblu/index.php
http://cdn.antarcticglaciers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Pine_island_glacier.png
I get the feeling that there is a lot of "heavy lifting" needed for Pine Island.
Going back to 2009..
plans have changed with the revival of the field camp [Byrd] this coming year for a suite of new science programs.
http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contentHandler.cfm?id=1796
these being, presumably the Pine Glacier shuttle.
It was last used in 2004-05, but is being resurrected in a big way beginning this year.
http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contentHandler.cfm?id=1793
“Flight time, round trip, to Siple was 11 hours via LC-130 from McMurdo,” Bresnahan said. Byrd Station essentially served as a gas station to increase the amount of cargo each plane could carry between McMurdo and Siple. The standard routine, he said, was to fly direct to Siple from McMurdo, offload the cargo, and then stop at Byrd for additional fuel before returning to McMurdo.
“For every three flights to Siple Station we needed two flights to Byrd to position fuel at the camp,” Bresnahan explained. “So, if we had 75 flights planned for Siple, we had to make 50 to Byrd just for fuel for the return flights.”
hmmmm
.... Pine Island Glacier is difficult to access. It is remote from any research bases, so flying there means making multiple short flights, making fuel depots to allow scientists to hop to the location. Low lying cloud often makes flying hazardous. The ice stream is heavily-crevassed and dangerous, so walking on it is difficult. Sea ice keeps ships away, making it difficult to access the ice stream from the ocean. However, scientists have several ingenious ways in which they can observe changes to this fragile, important ice stream. They can measure changes in ice extent and thinning from satellites4,5, and they have fired javelins loaded with sensors onto the ice surface, into places with too many crevasses for people to travel. Finally, scientists on board ships have deployed ‘Autosub’ beneath the very ice shelf, to make observations where no man can go.
I need to see where Russkiya was in relation to PIG. Could an airstrip have been/be built near Russkiya?
The above link references this 50 minute "need to know basis" video - I'll have a look later. Already the penguins at about 4:15 are making me hungry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfwCz-QfJ6o
The "inaccessible" Pine Ice Glacier link which I omitted
Deletehttp://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glaciers-and-climate/shrinking-ice-shelves/pine-island-glacier/
...which contains this reprinted map showing the poorly accessible PIG
Deletehttp://cdn.antarcticglaciers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ngeo102-f1.jpg
For reference, Russkaya would be at HUL [Hull Glacier], approximately. Pine Ice is much closer to Siple than Russkaya.
Some photos of the I 157 fuel cache, half way between Patriot Hills and Pine Island. That means that they could fly between the two.
Deletehttps://plus.google.com/photos/114340883390341708951/albums/5434629568712441345
http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/images/byrd_map.jpg
How are these caches numbered? There's another called I-189 mentioned here
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:P2S33meqS4QJ:polarmet.osu.edu/workshops/amomfw_2010/presentations/thom.pptx+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&lr=lang_en|lang_fr
It's at Janet
map: http://wmsserv2.ssec.wisc.edu/tmp/aws50143487999928928.png
Source: http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/aws/index.php?region=West%20Antarctica&station=Janet
The list of West Antarctica Automatic Weather Stations is on that page:
Bear Peninsula
Brianna
Byrd
Elizabeth
Erin
Evans Knoll
Harry
Janet
Kominko-Slade (WAIS)
Siple Dome
Theresa
Thurston Island
There's a fixed wing landing map here - very interesting - saying which can accommodate C-130s, which have fuel caches, where West Antarctica landing sites are...
https://www.usap.gov/USAPgov/sciencesupport/GIS/documents/FixedWingLandingFacilitesMap_2010-11.pdf
Incredible number of weather stations-- and flights-- you've found here. What is your tentative hypothesis then-- re flat earth ice rim? Does it look like PIG and Marie Byrdland in general consists of an expanded area compared to the rest of the antarctic coast-- which is being compressed somehow- in the reports? Maybe all the continents we know of as Earth are at one focus of an ellipse... and that's where humanity lives... and the ice rim of that end of the ellipse has most antarctic activity-- whereas the other end of the ellipse is much wider and more distant... and that's Marie Byrdland and the red zone-- with no stations-- and most weather transmitters. The official south pole would be the "gateway" to that far side of the ellipse.. most distant from continental earth and is what Byrd meant by "the land beyond the south pole".
DeleteI'll draw a map later of this. I can't explain why we wouldn't have more happening on 'our side of the ellipse" however since the land beyond the south pole would be the land beyond the south pole "perimeter"-- unless there's a definite ice way at some point that has already been discovered.
You quoted this
“For every three flights to Siple Station we needed two flights to Byrd to position fuel at the camp,” Bresnahan explained. “So, if we had 75 flights planned for Siple, we had to make 50 to Byrd just for fuel for the return flights.”
My comment-- that's incredible. Who knew there were that many service flights going on? You're digging up some pretty detailed data beyond my ability to work with right now. Thanks... I think.
Fuel dump I-189 is marked on the map:
ReplyDeletehttp://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/images/byrd_map.jpg
[See below for reason for location]
The numbers on the fixed wing landing sites don't seem to correspond with I-189 and I-157.
However three landing sites with refuelling to the west of the Siple-Patriot Hills axis are numbered 184/215, 190, 200 and 216
184= I-157-M Core 1 as above 77.99500 S, 95.874000 W [not a cache, but a landing place near the cache]
190= 190 Johnny Cache [ha love the pun!] 78.521667 S, 145.065270 W
200= 200 PIG Site C (fuel cache) 75.603300 S, 99.889000 W
215= 215 POLENET/CRESIS SURVEY I-157 Fuel Cache 77.991000 S, 95.868300 W
216= 216 POLENET/CRESIS SURVEY I-189 Fuel Cache 77.173667 S, 123.392500 W
There is a swarm of landing places in the Trans Antarctic Mountains, [inset of :https://www.usap.gov/USAPgov/sciencesupport/GIS/documents/FixedWingLandingFacilitesMap_2010-11.pdf ]
with two fuel caches
127 Moody Fuel Cache 83.124300 S 159.681330 W
77 Otway Massif 85.580000 S 172.000000 W CTAM Camp
Video of the camp in 2010/1 with twin otter and two helicopters...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFOJDnFu1go
story:
http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contenthandler.cfm?id=2398
Helicopters operate Monday through Saturday only and the flight range is on the order of 100 nautical miles from the camp (about 1 hour flying time).
http://tamcamp.org/camp/previous
There's a nice summary of all the activity in unclaimed Marie Byrd Land and elsewhere here:
Deletehttp://www.ractent.com/rac-tent-major-projects.htm
I do want to have a closer look at this crash report, involving three dead....January 23 2013
http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/10s/kba.html
search-and-rescue base at the CTAM camp and fuel cache at 84ºS 164.5ºE....
June 2014 update...a Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) report was released on 20 June 2014, indicating that the cause could not be identified (CBC 20 June coverage). Earlier, in May, New Zealand's Search and Rescue Council recognized the USAP for their support and cooperation in the crash investigation
The SAR team recovered the cockpit voice recorder; it was analyzed by Canadian authorities, but it did not contain any audio from the time of the crash. The team also recovered crew identification documents and took photos of the crash site. Based on the presented information, the coroner ruled that the three Canadians, Robert Heath, Perry Denton, and Perry Anderson, died from multiple injuries received from the crash impact. Further efforts to recover the bodies of the men had been considered for the 2013-14 summer season, but these were cancelled.
This Twin Otter, operated by Kenn Borek Air (KBA) out of Calgary, was at Pole on Wednesday 23 January...the crew, pilot Bob Heath from Inuvik, NWT; copilot Mike Denton of Calgary, and Perry Andersen of Collingwood, ON, had been there for nearly two days, they thought they were done with their Antarctic activities and were preparing to fly to Rothera, en route back to Calgary. But they received a call from their office that plans had changed, and they were needed at Mario Zucchelli Station, the Italian base in Terra Nova Bay about 220 miles north of McMurdo. Late that afternoon they took off...
The signal was transmitting from near Mt. Elizabeth, near the Beardmore Glacier about 420 miles south of McMurdo, halfway between McMurdo and Pole...
Christchurch Press, reported that former Kenn Borek general manager Steve Penikett had been tracking the flight online while at his current job in Kabul....
The crash site was reported to be at 83º53.57'S-168º17.47'E, just below the 14,698'/ 4480m summit of Mt. Elizabeth
...the search-and-rescue team made its way to the wreckage. They were able to recover some equipment from the exposed tail--including the cockpit voice recorder, but they were unable to safely access the remains of the crew.
Although consideration was given to a recovery effort in 2014, this was called off, and so far as I know there were no further returns to the crash site
I see big red flags from that curious event. They can get the black box but no bodies??? Fishy [or penguiny] in the extreme.
Here's a video of a Hercules C-130 taking off from CTAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fml6N3ppKe8
but in the following video, the landing place isn't noted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd4u0p9ZKwE
So, the question I have - how would a Twin Otter get from the South Pole to Rothera? Where would it stop? Distance 2492 km directly [source: www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/teacher_resources/resources/factsheets/factsheet_geostats_print.pdf]
Delete[74° 41′ 42″ S, 164° 7′ 0″ E] are on this map...
http://www.rinnovabili.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Mappa-Antartide-e-MZS.jpg
Crash site: 83º53.57'S 168º17.47'E
The distance from the Pole to Zucchelli is said to be just over 1700 km. Where would it have refuelled? It is not stated.
There's a report of a joint Russian - US inspection here from 2012, at the end of the 2011-2 Antarctic summer:
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.state.gov/stories/2012/03/09/antarctica-joint-us-russian-antarctic-treaty-inspection-team
I can only summarise it as a smokescreen, full of bland, inconsequential observations. Food, penguins, you get the picture.Vacuous in the extreme. No mention of Raytheon or NASA or all the activity in West Antarctica.
Earlier this month, Mongolia signed up to the Treaty, as indicated it would, back in 2014:
http://www.montsame.gov.mn/en/index.php/politics/item/4400-mongolia-wants-to-join-antarctic-treaty-system
Several kinds of minerals such as coal, uranium, oil and iron have been detected in Antarctica. By the ATS, mineral resources explored in the continent shall be exploited for peaceful purposes only.
In 1972-1974, Mongolia had its scientists participated for the first time in international research team on Antarctica. Last years, the Mongolian scholars have been conducting researches in Antarctica, being involved in international research group. Their works such as weather forecast and sea water and minerals researches have contributed to estimating tendencies of global climate changes.
http://www.infomongolia.com/ct/ci/5623
Mongolia is the first country to sign up since .....Monaco in 2008
AntarcticTreaty @AntarcticTreaty
#ATCM38 Mongolia newest member acceeding to the Antarctic Treaty
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGZTx8hWsAAYeIT.jpg:large
7:43 AM - 1 Jun 2015